Royal commission to look at robodebt spin and defence of its (il)legality

How departments and ministers use media, decisions from the now-abolished Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and how the government reckoned with growing criticism of robodebt are all on the table in the upcoming session of the royal commission.

The robodebt royal commission’s third set of public hearings will also examine how the legality of the scheme was defended despite advice to the contrary.

Hank Jongen, now Services Australia general manager, is on the witness list as well as several current and former public servants. Former ministers are in the mix, too.

Scheduled to appear on January 31, Jongen was general manager at the then-named Department of Human Services when robodebt was implemented.

With robodebt’s legality in focus, Services Australia’s former chief operating officer and general counsel Annette Musolino is likewise scheduled for January 30 and 31.

The bureaucrat has already been mentioned in the royal commission, with Musolino’s delay in handing over key documents on the first day of public hearings called out by senior counsel assisting Justin Greggery. Greggery said she was a “key witness”.

Writing for The Mandarin when the royal commission was announced, Bernard Keane identified both Jongen and Musolino as witnesses who must appear.

Another current public servant scheduled to appear is Services Australia’s deputy CEO Christopher Birrer, on January 23-24 and February 3. Birrer joined Services Australia in August 2020 as general manager, compliance assurance after robodebt was scrapped. Prior to joining Services Australia, Birrer was a long-time public servant at Defence.

Former AAT member Terry Carney is also on the witness list. The academic was let go from his position in 2017 after finding the scheme to be illegal, as reported by Crikey.

High-profile witnesses include former human services minister Alan Tudge on February 1 and former social services minister Christian Porter on the following day.

Tudge previously defended the robodebt scheme in 2017, and Porter had senior oversight of the scheme as social services minister.

With the use of media in the limelight, Tudge’s former media advisor Rachelle Miller will appear on January 31.

Miller alleged her former employer emotionally abused her in December 2021, which he denied. A March 2022 review of the allegations by Dr Vivienne Thom found Tudge did not breach ministerial standards.

University of Adelaide professor of public policy Adam Graycar said it was still not clear who initiated robodebt more: ministers or public servants “trying to suck up to the ministers”.

“What are the fundamentals of public administration?” Graycar posed to The Mandarin.

“First of all, you’ve got to do the right thing. Secondly, you’ve got to do things right.

“What happened in this case, neither of these principles came about.”

With a National Anti-Corruption Commission to be established this year, the Stretton Institute director said it’s difficult to say robodebt was “actually corrupt”.

“You can’t lose sight of the big picture integrity issues that are here,” he said. “The robodebt scheme failed on integrity, it failed on lawfulness and it failed on trust.

“The royal commission will start to work out why those failures came about and how that can be prevented in the future.”

Hearings are scheduled to run from January 23 to February 3.

READ MORE:

Robodebt failures ‘should have been obvious’ to senior public servants, judge finds